Various environmental factors, e.g., high salinity, pathogens, and chilling, cause stress and adverse effects on growth and productivity of crops. It is therefore desirable to produce transgenic crops that are tolerant to such factors. Genetic engineering can be used to modify proteins that are involved in regulating responses of plants to environmental factors, thereby improving stress-tolerance.
TUBBY proteins, a group of membrane-bound transcription regulators, were first identified from obese mice via positional cloning (Kleyn et al., 1996, Cell 85: 281-290 and Noben-Trauth et al., 1996, Nature 380: 534-538.). Mutations in the TUBBY genes lead to maturity-onset obesity, insulin resistance, retinal degeneration, and neurosensory hearing loss. TUBBY-like proteins (TLPs) were subsequently discovered in other mammals and were found to be activated through G-proteins, which, in higher plants, are involved in the response to environmental factors and hormone regulation (Warpeha et al., 1991, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 88: 8925-8929, and Ueguchi-Tanaka et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 97: 11638-11643).